ANCIENT CHINESE WARRIORS WERE BURIED ALIVE
The 3,000-year-old tombs of a wealthy clan, including the remains of warriors and warhorses that seem to have been sacrificed at their funerals, have been unearthed in an ancient capital city of China. The complex of 24 tombs was discovered at an archaeological site within the city of Anyang in Henan province, less than two miles from the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site of Yinxu at the city’s centre. The ruins there are from the ancient city of Yin, the capital of the Shang dynasty, which ruled between around 1600 BCE to 1046 BCE, the earliest dynasty ever recorded in China.
The newfound tomb complex includes several pits that hold war chariots, the remains of horses that drew them and the remains of warriors. Some of the warriors were wearing hats decorated with strings of shells when they died, while the foreheads of some of the horses were decorated with gold veneer and a bronze backing.
The practice of the ‘ritual suicide’ of servants, or ‘volunteering’ to be buried alive at the funerals of their high-status masters, was common in Shang dynasty China. Archaeologists from Anyang have excavated the site for about two years. So far they have found the foundations of 18 ancient buildings as well as 24 tombs and burial pits for six chariots that also contain the remains of sacrificed men and horses.